The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-07-17

/ Mexico in 1858 in order that his slaves might be-
come free before his death. At present rheu-
i matsm keeps James from walking. but he can
/ drag himself short distance and otherwise is
| in fairly good health.
MATTERS AND THINGS.
| A writer in the American Agricultural
/ treats of Summer Difficulties with Poultry"
| more comprehensive article on Summer Diff :
| culties with the Neighbours Poultry" would
| doubtless strike responsive chord in many
| breasts.
| The Evening News should renew its acquaint-
| ance with Dickens, ere it be too late. It was
| Mrs. Dombey-and not Mrs. Nickleby-as
| recently alleged by our esteemed contemporary.
who was so conspicuously and deploraby unable
| to make an effort"
| He poor young lawyer. and she was a
| millionaire's daughter, but they met, and loved
| in the good old-fashioned way. and in due
| son the young man presented himself to pro-
| pound the momentous subject of marriage to
the rich papa want to marry my daughter.
and can just barely support yourselff' growled
earth, don't your ..Not ali of it," hastily ex.
planned the youth, '.only of the United
States" And the father smiled family, and
said he would take the matter into hopeful con-
sideration.
An Eastern paper makes a call for public
waste baskets to be stationed at convenient
places along the highways and byways
as receptaeies for the scraps of pa
narily throws upon the ground, giving an untidy
appearance to the streets This is not bad
suggestion. ii the careless public could only be
induced to profit by it; and. by the same token,
judging from the many discarded bundles Of
bread and cold meat which frequently garnish
the benches of our city parks. public garbage
barrels would be correspondingly appropriate in
this locality. How to maintain well-kept and
attractive parks is problem the solution of
which has not yet reached as.
brunswick" in the Boston Gazette advocates
the removal of Walt Whitmans residence from
Camden to Boston, for the very amusingly @s-
thetic reason that she thinks the good gray poet
looks like Neptune and she wants to the
majestic old fellow posing on rock, with his
about by the winds of the osean. This idea is
nothing if not original and it is to be hoped that
the grand old bard will not hastily decline so
complimentary an offer. II Is not every one to
whom tho ocean is becoming. and those who can
wear it and look well in it ought never to appear
IN public In anything else.
It is not too late to make mention Of the fact
thatit was great relief to large portion Of this
community when the ible-tab lcau man rolled up
his pictures, folded his tent, and went hence
His method of advertisement was abomniabls.
and it is matter for astonishment that the voices
against it. It is bad enough to behold our be-
loved poets and prose writer's dsfgured by
blsary woodcuts; we can even stand the pang
given US by beholding that estimable woman,
Queen Victoria. appear with blob of printers
ink entirely closing one eye, and making the
other orb of vision assume the similitude Of
winking at he- constituency, while very
strong minded mustache adorns her upper lip;
but when it comes to having hideous wood-cuts
of the head of Christ used for advertisements
even of Bible tableaux-public sentiment is that
of shocked indignation. A being who would be
guilty of such dissertation would 'peep and bot
anize upon his mothers grave" Ont upon him.
It is with wholly unalloyed pleasure that we
read the item announcing the departure of John
Smith for Europe. There is not man in the
country who is 80 thoroughly entitled to a
ton, who can be well spared to take q pro-
longed continental trip, this same John 1t il
his simultaneousness, il it may be so expressed.
which peculiarly fits him for lengthy season Of
rest and recreation and at the same time fills.
in the public and private mind and breast, the
gap and void which that absence might under
other conditions occasion. As it is. may all lie
back and possess souls in peace know
ing confidently that in every walk in
which the most ironical fate can devise, though
far away John Smith will yet be still with
While he is enjoying rural England and dawdling
down her primrosespanRled lanes in pleasant
company, he will still continue to beat his wife
and get into the clutches of the law on the back
streets of Indianapolis. Though he may be
Burns and fall on the genuine neck of Robert
Louis Stevenson, yet will he remain in the
active dry goods trade on the same old corner of
the same old town in Ohio. He may Investigate
the causes of Ireland's unhappiness at the ident-
cal moment In i. which he gives his
neghhor q black eye in the provincial Businesses
of Chicago. AS ne basks IN the beauty of the
bay of Naples. he enterprisingly opens a
butcher-shop in Cincinnati. AS he climbs the
snowclad Alps and rh apsodizes over their lowell
ness he expires of sunstroke on the rock pile in
Louisville. He may be boarding the tiger at
Monaco while he is being installed pastor of q
colored church in Kentucky. It il folly to elab-
crate further upon this theme-tbe most feeble
minded among US can trace its illimitableness.
Bon voyage. comrade John Smith. enjoy your
self; your niche in the worlds happenings will
be well filed.
Boston is always getting mp something
''amoosin," and its latest departure into the
realm of the absurd is Psychical Research So
ciety. whose object, SO far penetrable by the
crude intellect of the frontiersman. is to hunt
down ghosts and hold them captive at least long
enough study their origin and species The
proper study of mankind is man; but as is we'll
known, every mature Bostonian has long ago
exhausted that limited theme, and signs for
livelier woods and pastures more exhilarating.
This new fad" must not by any means be
founded with anything go COMMON place as
spiritualsm, which deals only with the invisible,
and such rough and remote materializations
as it may from time to time vouchsafe. Ghost
hunting deals with tho visitle-invisible, if it
may be defined. Whether the ghosts, whan
caught, are to be pressed fiat, and pasted in al
buns to have written labels pasted on
polished side and be laid In cabinets for future
reference cannot be stated; in fact the Psychical
Society has not yet given its formula of action to
the public, but there is no patent ghost-hunt-
ing. and we can all indulge in the pleasures of
this chase at will 1t would certainly be
effective method OF keeping down the mercury
during the heated term, we'll as being species
of amusement beyond the clutches of the law.
Fancy sitting late your own back porch
hot summer night. dreading to go to bed.
and trying TO coax toward you with palm-leaf
fan, the mnstrations of some wandering breeze.
You fall into little midsummer nights dream
and awake with start to see pale form wan
dering among the holyhocks at the lower end OF
the garden You tiptoe softly thither. and by
the moons pale fray you see that your visitant
is of diaphanous form-graceful and beautiful,
but unearthly. It bends to sip the dew-laden
-